Preview

The House of the Scorpion

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
839 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The House of the Scorpion
The house of the scorpion
The term extraordinary can apply to many things. The definition of extraordinary is an object that is “very unusual and deserving attention”. The House of the Scorpion deserves to be called extraordinary because it spins a masterful literary web that will not set you free until you finish the last page with a satisfied sigh. Because of the moralistic issues she cunningly weaves into the book, the excellent literary language, and her cautionary take on the future, Farmer will never disappoint her readers as she spins her dispute between right and wrong.
There is a thin line between good and evil. Farmer delves into morally wrong issues, and brings our twisted inventions to the light. She poses questions of right and wrong of topics discussed today. Is it ethical to clone human beings? Is a human suffering, even though they are not aware of it? Farmer brings our worst fears into view and dissects them one by one. Even though we clearly see some things as bad and others as good Farmer gives a second opinion on these issues and makes us rethink our answers. Her take on right and wrong is exemplified by El Patron and Matt. One is clearly right, and the other wrong. But the reader cannot but feel that El Patron was to be sympathized with, such as when he pitifully repeats the tale of his dead brothers and sisters. Matt on the other hand at some times was to be despised at, such when he forced Maria to kiss him. Readers will be kept to the edge of their seat as she presents questions and answers and while at the same time causing ourselves to delve deeply into our hearts and find what we believe in. Readers will not be able to put down this book because of the thoughtful questions it provokes.
Another one of the reasons why readers are recommended this book is Farmer’s literary style. While the plot is the bare bones of the story, the meat is what really makes the book worth reading. Her characters are the veins that give the book life as

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Camp X Book Report

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages

    This book report discusses the plot, significant characters, setting (e.g., time of the story took place, historical background), problems and resolutions, themes or messages of the story. A reflection of the author’s writing style will be presented followed by a conclusion.…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Runaway King

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The book was fast paced and always had me wanting to read the next page. The style of the book was a style with interesting characters and exciting action. Some of the main characters in the story are Jaron, Gregor, and Mott. Jaron in the beginning of the story was already a very well developed character since he is the most important of all the main characters in the…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Kafka and Marquez

    • 1543 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" and in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's " A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," an understanding of the cruelty of mankind is revealed through an examination of the themes and the characters in both of their stories. Although these stories are both written in two different styles, there are a few common threads within them that make them interesting to compare. By comparing these two stories one is able to fully understand the struggles incurred by those individuals who are different from what society considers being normal.…

    • 1543 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    I liked this book because it allowed me to visually picture the story it was telling.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The first thoughts I had about the text were very surprising to me because I actually thought the topic was interesting and very captivating. The author’s style really motivated me to pay attention to details and the story. I also enjoyed how descriptive she is when recalling her events because it helps make the text interesting to digest.…

    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another reason why you should read this great novel is because it has this realistic feeling to it you can actually feel the emotions being said in the novel it will touch you in an unexplainable way.…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While reading The House of the Scorpion the reader sees that this book’s moral dilemma is being hated because he is different. The House of the Scorpion is about a boy clone named Matteo Alacran. In the book Matt faces numerous issues in his life do to the fact that he’s a clone.…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    wanted to keep her readers intrigued and she did a great job at that. Although, throughout the…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you been treated badly because you are different from other people? The House of the Scorpion, written by Nancy Farmer, is about a boy, Matt, who gets treated differently because he is a clone. In my opinion, the theme is that don’t treat other people badly because they are different compared to you. Evidence from the book has Rosa treating Matt like an animal, the priest not allowing Matt in church because he’s a clone, and the gardeners building barriers and filling sawdust in his cell. Furthermore, there will be details explaining the evidence and it will be supporting the theme.…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    House of the Scorpion

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Born in a laboratory from ancient cells, to live a life with sole purpose to be scrap parts to keep another alive, Matteo Alacràn, upon revealing himself to the estate he is kept on from his isolated habitat, at first, though he is to be the most important figure on the estate, is treated as a wild animal would be. When you find out that Matt is a clone you take a whole new perspective on how the book is going than from when you first start reading. Matt is a boy who starts out separated from people for the whole start of his life until he meets Maria and her friends. The story progresses when he meets his mirror image, older, yet stunningly similar, a powerful drug lord who owns the country of Opium, also named Matteo Alacràn, nicknamed "El Patron." Matt is horrified when he realizes how El Patron gets his work done, prisoners with implanted computer chips inside their head do two and only these two things: they were to do anything that they were told, and they were to do all the work to harvest the drugs – which is Opium's income source – Eegits, forever bound to a life of servitude.…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is a very interesting piece of literature because the story is vague enough to create a heated debate whether she had an abortion or not in the end. We can make up the future of their relationships in our imaginations and how she might be going to live. It enabled us to figure out what the story were based on, and it showed us a very realistic feature of our very own world we live in and how some people are irresponsible and so self-centered.…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My opinion on this book is that it always keeps you on the edge of your seat with many plot twists, and a sad but exiting tone in the story. I hold this opinion because there are many exiting events in the story and you can never expect when they happen. All in all this was a great story and I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys fast paced books and one…

    • 356 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Did you know that in 1996 a sheep named Dolly was cloned? It is true, scientists have been working on cloning living things. But they aren’t able to clone a human because that is not yet legal. In the book The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer a boy named Matt is the clone of a powerful drug lord named El Patron. He is living with a woman named Celia when he got hurt and had to be taken to the Big House, then he ends up meeting El Patron and living in the Big House. Throughout the story Matt starts making friends with different people that treat him like a human instead of a clone, Matt has a choice to make to see if El Patron is worth it for his body parts or not. I believe the overall theme of this story is friendship. I also think the message she is trying to get across is that friends are never apart, maybe in distance, never in heart. In the story Matt really only makes a few friends such as Celia, Tam Lin, and Maria are three of the main ones that treated him like a human.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story The House of the scorpion, written by Nancy Farmer, the main characters are Matt, El Patron, Celia Maria Tam Lin. The Main setting is in the future, in Mexico, On an opium farm. In the beginning of the story we meet Matt who is a clone of El Patron. Who has never known anyone else but Celia. In the story the main problem is that Matt is a clone And is not seen as an equal because he is a clone. The solution is When El Patron died, he was the only copy of him, so with the law Matt was the new drug lord El Patron. At the end of the story Matt finds out every one of his enemies died by drinking of wine but in that process of losing all his enemies he loses his close friend Tam Lin.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What I enjoyed most about reading this book was the way the author introduced and described all of the characters. I had a great picture in my mind about each and every character and I felt myself thinking about some of them even when they were absent from a page or two. It became so interesting that before I could finish the book, I had to turn to the internet to look up the characters of the movie. I just had to see them in the flesh!…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics